Knowing
by The Illusionist's Wings04
Summary: When Percy stayed at his cousin's house in California, he never expected this. Sure, maybe comb the beach looking for some hot chick to flirt with, and maybe catch a few waves with his cousin, Thalia. But fall for a taken girl? Never.


**Hi peeps and fellow writers! So, I usually don't do write for Percy Jackson; mainly Soul Eater and Maximum Ride. Actually, I've never wrote a Percy Jackson fic. But I decided to enter a contest of one of my favorite authors here, Jayne Mays! *Imaginery audience starts applauding like crazy in my head***

** Anyway, I'm hoping you'll consider my piece! I know it's a little late, but I think I've done pretty good. I hope I stuck to the prompt well enough! I've had some problems with that before….**

**Enjoy!**

LINE-BREAK-NAMED-BOB

"_Percy, my Gods, hurry up!"_ Thalia screeched from the patio. I chuckled, and to make her suffer even more, I started walking slow-mo just couple feet away from the doorway. Thalia growled at me, and her electric blue eyes sparked with anger. She wore a silver halter top bikini. "Come on," she growled, grabbing my arm and shoving me through the door. "Why, Percy, why? Gods, Annabeth is going to be _so_ PO'ed."

I laughed, letting her pull me down the stone path to the small private beach her father owned. I had already had a few days to get used to the scenery, but, honestly, it still left me a little breathless. I lived in New York, which though great for people watching, wasn't exactly the place to surf; this place couldn't have been more perfect. Gorgeous clear blue water lined the perfect white beach. Even from here, you could see pink shells dotting the coastline and colorful fish swimming around. Palm trees lined the beach giving the ideal amount of shade for relaxing and joking around under. Not to mention a huge beach house at the top of the rocky cliffs which Thalia's father somehow could afford. I honestly have no idea how; both my dad and Thalia's dad majored in mythology, which explains my full name, Perseus, and Thalia and I's mentions to the gods of Greek mythology. After hanging around our parents, it kinda stuck.

"So who is this Annabeth?" I asked curiously. I was actually eager to meet these friends of Thalia's; anyone who could stand her attitude was to be admired greatly.

"She's a close friend. We've known each other since diapers were all the fashion. Her boyfriend, Luke" her tone changed to a sneer so quickly at the mention of this guy's name even I noticed, "should also be here, along with Nico and his sister, Bianca." I'd met Nico a few years ago, but never the others. All this talk had got me missing my friend, Grover, back in the big city. I had offered him the chance to come, but because of him having to use crutches, he decided not to come.

"What's wrong with Luke?" I questioned, actually feeling bad for the guy. It was never a good idea to anger Thalia; she turned into a thunder storm (metaphorically, of course) and you would be sure to be struck by lightning. Not fun.

"He's a jerk," she started ranting, grimacing. "Annabeth deserves so much better. He's always bullying kids at school and gets into some pretty bad situations with the police every once and a while. And he acts like a complete _angel _around Annabeth."

"Haven't you told her?" I said, confused.

"Of course we've told her!" she groaned, looking extremely agitated at my slow mind process. "But she actually likes him! Look, you're a guy, you wouldn't understand."

I quirked an eyebrow at her comment, but stayed quiet. Wasn't my area to question, because I wasn't some relationship expert, and I definitely wasn't a girl. Sure, I had dated a few girls, but it never seemed that _real_. Just so we didn't have to say we were single.

We had made are way slowly to a landing in the rocks where our surfboards were lying under a small canopy. Mine had a simple white background with an aqua green trident in the middle. There was a slight airbrush around the weapon, making it look as if it were glowing. Thalia's was also pretty simple, with a gray background and two clashing lightning bolts. We both grabbed the boards under our arms and headed down to the beach.

When we made it to the bottom, the first thing I noticed was a group of teenagers in the shade of palm tree leaves. They all glanced up at our arrival, and I felt their gazes automatically to the new kid, which was me. I had always liked living under the radar, so the looks were making me uncomfortable, but I knew I didn't want to be considered the underdog so I walked toward them confidently.

"Hey Thalia," one guy said, still looking at me.

"Hey Nico," she replied. She clapped her hand to get everyone's attention. "So," she yelled out loudly, "this is Seaweed Brain. Seaweed Brain, everyone. Get acquainted." I hit her upside the head. She glared at me, and then sighed.

"Fine." She motioned toward the guy who had said hello to her. He had black hair and dark brown eyes, and I automatically thought of the god of the underworld in the Greek myths, Hades, because Nico seemed like he could hide in the shadows without being caught. "Percy, you remember Nico, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded towards him, remembering he wasn't all that talkative, and he have me a grin in welcome.

Next, she pointed toward a girl sitting cross legged on a pink beach towel, who flashed me a bright smile. Bianca looked much different from the pictures her brother Nico had shown me a few years back. Instead of wearing a floppy lime green hat that covered her eyes, you could actually see her long, brown hair and dark brown eyes, which were much like her brother's. When Nico saw me looking over her, he took a small step towards her and caught my gaze. I held his for a moment, and gave another small nod to show that I respected his job as a protective brother. Hey, I could completely understand his point of view; I had another close friend back home, Rachel, that I had known since she moved to New York in middle school, and I had always been protective over her. I mean, let's face it; she had _no _idea how much attention she got from the opposite gender.

Thalia called out the name 'Bianca', and then turned toward another boy leaning against a palm tree. "This," she said seethingly, "is Luke."

I didn't see what was so bad about him. He had short blond hair and light blue eyes, filled with a carefree glint. The one thing that was unsettling about his appearance was a long white scar, stretching diagonally across his left cheek. It looked slightly rough, as if it had been slashed angrily with dulled knife. Other than that, he seemed like any usual surfer about to ride the waves. "Hey," he spoke up, smirking. So this was the criminal? He sure didn't seem the type.

"And this," Thalia said lastly, pointing towards another figure leaning against the palm tree, though they were sitting, "is Annabeth.

The first impression I had Annabeth was an owl: quiet and annoyingly smart, but definitely had a vicious streak. And when I say she looked like she was intelligent, I'm not talking thick framed glasses and a math book in her hand, because trust me, she was undeniably good looking. She just had an air about her that said she could outwit you at anything academic, and she wasn't too shabby with sports either by the looks of her well toned arms, along with a perfect, inartificial tan. Annabeth had soft wavy honey blond hair was held up in a high ponytail and she was wearing a see through white cover up over a gray halter top bikini. She could have looked like an ideal California Girl, except for her stormy gray eyes, which studied me with some distaste, as if I had somehow offended her. "So, you're Percy?" Annabeth asked questionably, her voice ringing clearly over the crashing of the waves."Thalia's been going on and on about you coming for days. She said you haven't come over here to the west in years."

I looked over at Thalia, who was blushing furiously. "I-I have not!" she sputtered argumentively. "It's just been really boring this summer, and he always ends up falling off a cliff or something." But she still looked really embarrassed at what had been said.

"Ah," I joked, flinging my arm over her shoulders. "Has my little cousin missed me?"

Thalia glared at me hard and ducked under my arms. "No," she snapped. With that, she stomped off towards the water, dragging along her board. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the small group. "So are you still doing fencing?" I asked Nico. He nodded. "Thalia's told me you're pretty good."

Nico looked like he was about to decline the compliment, but Bianca jumped up, beaming. "He's amazing!" she squealed, bouncing on the balls of her feet like a little kid. "Nobody's ever really beaten him. I mean, sure, there was that guy who tripped him, but that broke a rule, so no one officially won." I smiled at how excited she talked about her brother's opponent's never ending defeats. Soon, Luke joined in and we all chatted for a bit until Thalia screamed at us to get our butts in the water. It turned out that Luke, Nico, and Bianca also surfed, so we all went out. Annabeth stayed behind in the shad reading.

We all had a blast out in the water. At first we all abandoned our boards and splashed each other, but then Luke challenged me to a contest of who surfed better. I had to admit, he was good, but the waves just had a way of bending to my will. After that, I noticed Annabeth still reading her book. Why didn't she come out? "Does Annabeth ever come out?" I asked out loud, still looking at her. Nico followed my gaze. "No," he answered, "she usually just reads. Luke can't even get her in the water." Even calm, collected _Nico _had a bit of scorn in his voice as he spoke about Luke.

"Why does everyone hate Luke?" I asked quietly. Nico glanced over his shoulder to make sure Luke was far away from us before answering.

"A few months ago, before Annabeth and Luke started going out, he had a girlfriend, Tess. They had been going out for a couple months and had been getting more serious before Tess found out he was cheating on her with a girl from another school. It was all over school. Tess was absolutely devasted; apparently she had caught Luke red handed in the store room of the beach shop he works at."

"So why's Annabeth going out with him?" I said, really confused. Annabeth obviously had some brains. Couldn't she see he was a jerk?

"She's positive he's decided to turn over a new leaf," he told me. "But Thalia, Bianca, and I are sure he's cheating on her. We haven't caught him in the act, but Annabeth told us he's been busy with work, and that's exactly what he told Tess when they were still dating."

"Ah." I glanced back towards Annabeth, and started paddling back towards the beach. "I'm going to try to get her to come out," I called over my shoulder. I heard him call out to me, but I kept on going.

When I got to shore, she was still staring intently at the book like it was the secret to the universe. I took a moment to stare at her; how her long bangs fell over her forehead, and her eyes didn't move at all, as if she were in her own world that was barricked to the rest of us. "Hey, bookworm," I called out, plopping down beside her. She tried to ignore me, but I kept pestering her, and she finally snapped, "Would you shut up?" She glared at me harshly, like I had seriously insulted her, and she only frowned more when I laughed at her.

I only nodded my head, chuckling. "So what's so good that it keeps you from the waves?" I asked jokingly, grabbing the book from her. She made a desperate attempt to save it, but had to catch herself from falling flat on her face. "A math book? What, algebraic what-ya-call-its are better than crystal blue water?"

She blushed bright red, and grabbed the book from my hands. "It's interesting!" she insisted.

My eyebrows rose. "Interesting. Math, interesting?"

"It really is!" Her eyes almost brightened at the thought of some listening to her antics. "You always come out with a straight answer No what ifs, or this could happens. Just a nice clean cut answer. Besides," she blushed a bright red again. "I want to study to be an architect when I leave high school."

"You, an architect?" I had only known her for a few hours, but it was hard to picture smart mouthed Annabeth sitting calmly at a desk drawing. She glared at me, and I raised my hands in protest. "Hey, look, I'm not saying you wouldn't be good. I mean. Look at this." I held up a piece of paper with what I could only assume were math problems. "This is amazing stuff. You got to be smart to understand this."

She smiled, actually smiled at me, and I was knocked wordless. She was a knock out already, but when she smiled she was completely _beautiful_. Not just in looks, because I'm pretty sure I already went over those, but just the way her smile seemed to light up the world. As if she never smiled again, the rays of sun would dim, and plants would wither and die.

Once I returned to Earth, Annabeth was staring at me oddly, but I just ignored it. Grabbing her hand, I started trying to pull her out into the waves. She glanced uncertainly out. "You're not scared, are you?" I taunted. She glowered at me, then retorted "of course not!"

"Good." I grinned. "Then you can't get mad at me for this." With that, I grabbed her around the waist and, with her shrieking threats and squirming, threw her into the crashing waves. Amazingly, instead of the immediate death I expected, she laughed and splashed me hard. I accepted the challenge. In the water fight, I noticed the incredulous stares from the rest of the group, all the while trying to ignore the frown on Luke's face.

_**One Week Later…**_

"I'll meet you at Groovy Smoothie, slow poke," I called up the stairs. "You girls take forever to get ready."

"At least we're not slobs like you boys," Thalia replied smoothly from upstairs. "Did you even take a shower?" Deciding to ignore her, I walked out the door and made my way down to the more touristy area of the town. I was already a fourth of a way through my visit to California, and so far it had been great. Most days we were wondering around town, or down at the beach. One frequent visit was Groovy Smoothie. Groovy Smoothie was a local hangout for kids here, and also a place where tourists stopped by on a hot day. There is a rack of souvenirs with the logo, and weird slogans like "I survived a pirate attack" and such. Luke, who works there, says tourists eat those types of things up, and I'm not about to say he's wrong.

Anyway, the group was meeting up down there. I wasn't in the mood to wait around, and had a major craving for a mango smoothie, oddly enough. I wasn't about to stand at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Princess Thalia to get her butt down here.

When I first walked in, the place was pretty empty of people. There were a few booths filled, and a few people up at the non-alcoholic bar, but that was it. Luke wasn't up at the cash register, so I went to go look for him in the backroom. He was probably getting ready for a busy day or something. His boss didn't mind us walking on in as long as we didn't stop anyone from doing their job.

Then again, _I _wasn't the one keeping him occupied. Imagine my surprise when I walked in on him with his tongue shoved down some girl's throat. Yet there they were, and all I could do was blink.

The girl, a brunette who was obviously not Annabeth, blushed red at the sight of me. She quickly took her hands away from Luke and turned around; she tried-and failed- to look busy at organizing the different types of ice cream.

I guess I should have punched Luke at this point. I mean, he was cheating on Annabeth! But no, instead he was the one who pulled me out into the restaurant behind the bar. "Hey, man," he said, grinning. "You won't tell Annabeth about this, right? Or Lizzy?" He nodded towards the door to the backroom, so I could only assume he meant the girl he was making out with earlier. "You can understand, Percy? I mean, Annabeth is a nice girl and all, but… you know? Mrs. Goody-Twoshoes."

I nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Do you get this?" I pulled back my fist and slammed it into his face. Immediately his nose started gushing blood, and he held it back, trying to slow the blood flow. "What is your problem!" he gasped out, still holding his nose gingerly.

"My problem?" I asked quietly, getting up in his face. Luke was honestly looking at me like I was the traitor. "My problem, Luke, is that you're giving up the most beautiful, caring, smart girl for some fling. That's my problem."

"Percy!"

My gaze shifted behind me. Not only were the few people staring at us in surprise, but Thalia and the rest of the group were also gazing at me, Bianca even looking slightly fearful. "What the heck are you doing?" Thalia snapped.

"You were right," I told her. "He's a cheating jerk."

They all stared at me, and Thalia looked murderous. Annabeth looked the most amazed. She stared at Luke calmly for a moment before slowly turning around and walking out of the shop. Thalia and Nico had already ascended on Luke, so I ran after Annabeth.

When I finally hunted her down, she was sitting at the edge of the surface, her feet digging into the sand. I plopped down beside her; in the next few minutes, we both just sat there silently. She was shifting the sand with her hands, drawing odd symbols into the surface only to scuff them out.

Finally, she decided to talk."You know," she said, her voice tiny. She was still staring out at the blue horizon. "I was going to break it off with him. Not because of what he did, but we just didn't seem to click as well."

"But then," here she sniffled, "I never expected him to cheat on him." Her head fell into her hands, and I awkwardly put my arm around her. She leaned into to me; soon her shoulders were shaking with sobs. I patted her on the shoulder, trying to seem caring but feeling really self-conscious. I had never felt something like this towards a girl. I was weird; I almost felt _protective _over her.

After a while she calmed down, and her red puffy eyes met mine. She grabbed onto my hand and squeezed it. "You're a really sweet guy, Percy, you know that? I don't know many guys who would do something like that for me."

I was all tongue tied, but tried for an easy smirk. "I try."

She still held my gaze. "I was going to break up with him anyway, because of you. I can't believe it, either. I mean, I've only known you for a week." There she glanced away, looking embarrassed.

I remember asking my mom how she knew she loved my dad. What true love actually felt like. And she never really told me. All she did was grin at me. 'Trust me, Percy,' she told me happily. 'You'll know.'

It took all my ounce of control to keep myself from jumping up in joy. _She liked me!_ At this point, I think both of us had made up our minds. We both leaned forward and our lips met. And let me tell you, there weren't any fireworks. All right, so there were a few. But instead it was a _fire_. And the longer we held each other, it seemed to burn brighter and higher than ever. And in the end, my mom was right. With Annabeth here on the coast of California, I could tell.

_I knew._

** I hoped you all liked it! R&R!**


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